Shades Of Grey
by skycloud86
Summary: Nina and Jack, or is it? AU version of events taking place in the first three seasons.
1. Playing You

_**A/N – This will be a collection of vignettes showing the relationship between Nina and Jack from Day One to Day Three, with an obvious difference. This time, Nina is Jack, and Jack is Nina. This means that Nina is now the married SAIC of CTULA, whilst Jack is the chief of Staff that Nina had an affair with. For the purposes of this fic, Nina is bisexual and is currently living in a lesbian relationship with Teri and they are married – Kim is Teri's biological daughter and the father was a sperm donor.**_

There he was, making himself some coffee, hiding a secret from me. I thought I knew him, though I could trust him, but it turns out that he's dirty. I strike up a conversation with him, acting natural. He seems pleased to see me. My hand goes up and slaps him, and he looks at me with shock as he rubs his now red cheek. I see he's about to speak, but I don't let him get a single word out – I want to get to the bottom of this.

"How long have you been playing me, Jack?," I ask sternly, and his expression changes from shock to confusion.

"Playing you?," he replies, and I am tempted to give the other cheek a taste of my palm.

"I met with Richard Walsh tonight, Jack, and he gave me a keycard, which he said will give me the name of the dirty agent. That agent is you, Jack!," I speak, my voice getting louder as I do.

"Nina, I'm not dirty, I promise! This has to be a mistake!," he says, and for some reason I believe him. Maybe it's the love that I still feel for him, even though the flames of that passion died down quite a while ago. I decide to give him the benefit of the doubt, and reserve further and final judgement until Jamey can figure out what is going on.

"This keycard was used on January 14th, Nina," Jamey tells us in my office. She's sure of this, and I'm sure that this date is significant.

"January 14th, Nina," Jack replies, and the look in his eyes tells me that I've made a terrible mistake. We were in Santa Barbara all that weekend, an airtight alibi indeed. As Jamey leaves the room, I don't know what to say. Jack is looking at me and I can tell that it hurt him.

"Jack, I'm sorry," I tell him, and I really am. I try to come to some conclusion about the keycard, and I get an idea.

"That means that someone has access to your computer," I tell him, but its useless.

"I thought we trust each other," he says, before leaving the room. As he walks down the stairs, I watch him, and my heart breaks in two.


	2. Four Shots

They have my family, and I have no choice. I don't want to do this, and looking into his blue-green eyes only makes it worse. I have to kill him to save my family, and I know I will never forgive myself for this.

Standing near a hill, I keep him at bay with the gun. He may be taller and stronger, but I'm a good shot and I just hope that he won't make this any worse than it is.

"What's going on, Nina?," he asks, and I'm reluctant to tell him, explain why he has to die.

"I'm sorry, Jack," I tell him, and I fight not let the tears run down my cheeks.

"Why are you doing this, Nina?," he asks, and I debate with myself whether or not to tell him. Would it comfort him if he knew that by dying, he would save my family?

"They have Teri and Kim, Jack. I have no choice!," I reply, and the hurt in his eyes tells me that it is indeed no comfort.

"What about me, Nina?," he shouts, scared of his imminent death. I don't have an answer to his question. I want to close my eyes and just shoot, but I know that the bullets must go in a certain area.

Four shots, each one I hope hit the right area. Four shots to save my family, but also four shots that I will never forgive myself for. I don't want to look over the cliff to confirm his death, and I head back to my car, sneering at the vultures following us, recording the event for the son of a bitch who has my family. Driving off, I promise myself that the terrorist will pay.


	3. The Harbour Massacre

I wait in the shadows in the harbour, ready to make the trade with the Drazens. Jumping slightly as my phone rings, I expect to hear Andre's voice.

"It's Jack, Nina."

"What is it Jack?," I reply, already impatient and anxious as it is.

"I don't know how to tell you this, Nina," he replies, the sadness in his voice worrying evident.

"Just say it, Jack," I encourage him, both of out impatience and worry.

"It's about Kim, Nina. They found her body in the harbour. She's dead, Nina...Nina, are you OK?," he tells me, but as he goes on his voice is drowned out by my mind, which is too busy screaming to care. Falling to my knees and dropping the phone, I begin to cry silently. Allowing myself to mourn Kim for a few minutes, I rub my eyes and stand up. I march straight to my car and load up with ammo and another gun, slamming the door as I finish. Spotting a van parked nearby, I concoct a plan, soon finding a steel rod to smash the window of the van.

Inside their warehouse hideout, the Drazens are getting ready to leave in a hurry, but their preparations are interrupted as I smash my way into the building with the van. Getting out at the back and going around the side, I manage to pick off the terrorists one by one.

Reaching the other side of the warehouse, I notice that Andre and Victor have made it outside, and I pursue them with mechanical determination. The chase is a physical one, as I run across, over, under and onto various piers and boats whilst firing at the Drazens. I manage to kill Andre first, but I quickly receive a wound to my abdomen. Ignoring the pain, I continue and manage to trap Victor. Pointing out guns at each other, he shoots first, but his gun is either jammed or empty. Quickly deciding to show no mercy, I fire shot after shot into him, even as he floats on the dark water, dead. Eventually, my gun clicks to signal an empty magazine. The Drazens are dead, but so is my daughter.


	4. Bleak

As the videotape rolls and the truth comes to my eyes, naked and brutally honest, I feel overwhelmed with the flood of emotion.

"George, you see this," I speak on the phone to Mason, who I'm sure is just as shocked as I am.

"Yeah, I'm seeing it all right," he replies, and I know from experience that he doesn't believe his own eyes.

As the life vanishes from Jamey, Jack simply stands and stares straight into the camera that almost no one knows is there. His eyes, which I once looked into and saw warmth, love and compassion are now cold, empty and remind me of an abyss. He looks like a demon to me, and he probably is one. I realise that my family are in the same building as him, and I speed up, the streets turning into luminous blurs as a result. I notice a tear falling from my eye, but I have no idea for whom or why I'm shedding it.

Pulling into the underground garage, I hope that Jack has been caught, or at least has not yet managed to escape the building. Suddenly, I see a black SUV tear around the corner, and I know that he has noticed me. Descending quickly into madness, we drive straight at one another, and then he begins to fire through his windscreen at me. Having no choice but to fire back, I manage to shoot so close to his head that I'm sure he felt it fly past his ear. He crashes into a parked car, and my anger manages to reach a potentially fatal peak as I slam on the brakes.

Jumping out of my car, I approach him, gun aimed ready to fire. Noticing the bleeding gash on his forehead, I almost feel sorry for him, but this is a temporary moment of empathy, nothing more. Ordering him out of the car, he complies, before I manage to push him backwards. My hand, small as it is, manages to grasp his neck as tightly as possible, whilst I press my gun hard into the centre of his forehead.

"I trusted you, Jack!," I yell at him, but he barely flinches. I start to think that the Jack I once knew, once even loved, is now gone forever.

"I was just doing my job!," he replies, as if I should have known that his job was to betray and even kill his friends and coworkers.

"Doing your job? Walsh, Jamey, Ellis! How many people died today because you were just doing your job?!," I shout at him, and I'm seconds away from ending his existence. Hearing voices approach, I see Mason, Tony and two guards, and so does Jack. He knows I won't kill him know, and pushes his luck.

"How many people died because of you, Nina?," he responds, and my hand around his neck squeezes hard.

"Nina come on, we need him alive," Mason pleads, and I know he's right. I don't react, however.

"Come on Nina, this is no good. Go be with your family," he says, and something clicks inside of me. I let go of Jack, and he slides slowly to the ground, gasping for breath. Mason escorts me back into CTU and, for a brief moment, we turn around and look back at Jack. We didn't recognise him.

I notice Kim and we embrace, finally reunited. The moment ends abruptly as I realise that Teri is nowhere to be seen.

"Where's your mom?," I ask Kim but she hasn't seen her mother for hours. I grow worried, but try my hardest not to let it show.

"Stay here, I'll go find her," I say, and I walk down a corridor a million possibilities run through my head. Eventually, I come across a couple of guards performing CPR on another guard, and I panic.

"Have you checked this floor?," I ask loudly. They say no and I burst into a manic sprint, checking each and every room along the corridor, counting down the number of doors I have yet to open. I begin closing the latest door, but something makes me take a second look. Realising that its Teri, I run to her. Shes bound to a chair and seems to be out cold. Although she's taller than me, I can still lift her slim body easily, telling her that everything's going to be OK. That is until I notice the bloodstains, until her head falls back with no resistance. I deny the truth at first, but my legs grow weak and I sink to the floor with Teri still in my arms. Cradling her in my arms, I begin to cry.

'I'm so sorry, so sorry."


	5. Photograph

Trying not to look at Wald's dead body that laid slumped in the chair, or at the crimson blood that polled on the floor around Wald, Nina slowly picked up the brown envelope. Thinking to herself of the possible suspects whose identity was to be found inside the envelope, she felt a sensation of horror as she thought of one in particular.

_It couldn't be him, could it? Was he really not just working for the Drazens?_

She reached into the envelope and slowly pulled out the pictures, and her worst fear was confirmed. There, in black and white, was Jack, meeting up with the very group responsible for the bombing attack on CTU, an attack which had left over 30 dead and many more wounded. Pushing the pictures back into the envelope, she stood for a moment, thinking of her next move.

_If he's involved, then we'll have to bring him into CTU, interrogate him. If he's involved, then I have to get involved as well, because I know how he thinks._

Walking back to her car, Nina looked at each and every person she saw on the street. She knew that their lives were in the hands of CTU, and if they failed, these people would be dead in seconds. Nina knew that knowledge was not always an asset, and that knowing some things only made it worse.

_How deep is he involved, and for how long? What else has he given them?_

Sat in her car and grasping the steering wheel tightly, Nina looked into the rear view mirror. Her blue-green eyes were sorrowful, burdened both by tragedy and responsibility. Turning the key in the ignition, she took a deep breath and drove off.

_This is going to be a long day._


End file.
